| Virtual Private Servers (VPSs) exist in a sort of | | | | affecting the others. |
| middle ground between cheaper shared hosting and | | | | 3. You need more security |
| more expensive dedicated servers. This makes them | | | | Websites running on a shared hosting platform are all |
| useful for a wide variety of web hosting situations. A | | | | running within the same operating system, and on |
| VPS may be right for you if any of these following | | | | the file system. This means that theoretically one |
| situations apply: | | | | shared hosting client could in one way or another |
| 1. You need more performance | | | | affect the files that make up the website of |
| Is your website starting to outgrow its shared | | | | another, or perhaps take advantage of security flaw |
| hosting? Are you users complaining of slow response | | | | to somehow affect another client on the server. VPS |
| times? Perhaps it's time to consider moving up to a | | | | clients are not as vulnerable to these risks, because |
| better level of hosting. Virtual Private Servers are | | | | the virtualization software prevents any such |
| similar to shared hosting in that more than one virtual | | | | occurrence. As far as the virtual server's know, they |
| server can be hosted on a site - which helps keep | | | | are totally separate from any other virtual servers |
| the price down. But they also tend to have better | | | | that may be running on the host. |
| performance, because each virtual server gets a | | | | 4. You need more control |
| fixed shared of the host's resources. There's no way | | | | If you're running a site in a shared hosting |
| for one virtual server to "hog" the resources that | | | | environment, the hosting company is forced to place |
| other virtual servers on the host need - which is a | | | | some restrictions on what can or cannot be done on |
| common problem in shared hosting situations. | | | | the server, in order to guarantee quality of server to |
| 2. You need more stability | | | | other clients on the server. For example, you cannot |
| In a shared hosting environment, many websites are | | | | expect the hosting company to allow you to reboot |
| run from a single operating system on the server. | | | | the server whenever you want - it would take down |
| Thus, problems with one of these sites can cause | | | | all the other client's websites who are hosted on that |
| problems for the server - which causes problems for | | | | server! Likewise, there are many kinds of custom |
| all the other sites hosted on that server! Virtualization | | | | configurations that may be useful to your website, |
| allows the multiple virtual servers to run on the | | | | but may adversely affect the other clients, and |
| physical host, and each virtual server has it's own | | | | therefore can't be allowed. If your website or web |
| operating system and services. Even if one virtual | | | | application needs more control over the environment |
| server crashes, it has no effect at all on the others. | | | | it's running in, then a VPS may be perfect. You get |
| Likewise if one virtual server begins to "hang" | | | | "root" access to your VPS - at a cheaper rate than a |
| because of problems with a database (for example) - | | | | full blown dedicated server! |
| that virtual server can be safely restarted without | | | | |